So I have been relatively busy the past week and a couple days.
A little back story first though. I decided to do a ball joint flip in order to soften the ride and ended up deciding to flip the tie rod end as well. Well, I drilled it out and just tried to tighten it as far as I could go. That didn't work so well and caused a lot of problems with the steering. I couldn't drive the truck over 50 mph with that setup. Had to have it towed in and have a couple alignments in order to get it roughly where it would handle okay, but couldn't get it right.
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So, that set off the next phase.
With the help of Darek, I put on a 3" PA body lift, which I picked up off Cody (swamp) about a year ago, last Friday before the meet I held up here.
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Then I dove into the rough install.
A 5" CST lift for the Z71. Holy shit was that some work. The hardest damn thing was taking all the stock shit apart. Spindles and hubs gave me the most problems. Then the rear sub-frame didn't have the holes drilled in the correct place so I had to fix that problem.
Well, it took me about a week of working on everything in order to finish it up with the spare time that I had. Felt really bad for the wife since the truck was where all my time went.
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I finished that install up Friday and had to wait until Sunday since no shops could put on my new tires. So in my driveway it sat...
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Until I made a call this morning to a couple guys at meineke that have ALWAYS helped me out in a bind.
They fixed my brake line which wasn't tight enough - apparently I wrench on the truck like a weak little girl because I couldn't get it tight enough.
Then I made another phone call and I was able to get someone to mount the tires and do an alignment. They told me they could balance them but the hood on their machine couldn't close with the new rubber and they never called me to let me know.
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And if anyone has seen the Mud Grapplers, they have two sides to them, one has little reptile like pattern on then and the other side doesn't. They mounted the reptile pattern out and I didn't notice until I was already gone. Not too worried about it since it works and isn't that noticeable.
So now I have to make an appointment to have the wheels balanced on Monday.
So yeah, I need to do some better measuring, but I am about 46" in the front and 45" in the rear.
The setup is as follows:
3" PA Body lift
5" CST Z71 lift
1-2" torsion crank
2" shackle
18x9 Gear Alloy Flywheels with a +10mm offset
1.5" wheel spacers
35x12.50-18 Nitto Mud Grapplers
I am going to figure something out to level it out in the back, but it's not that noticable.
Also, I have been wanting to do this for 4 years now!!! It's good to see things happen that you have been waiting for.
A little back story first though. I decided to do a ball joint flip in order to soften the ride and ended up deciding to flip the tie rod end as well. Well, I drilled it out and just tried to tighten it as far as I could go. That didn't work so well and caused a lot of problems with the steering. I couldn't drive the truck over 50 mph with that setup. Had to have it towed in and have a couple alignments in order to get it roughly where it would handle okay, but couldn't get it right.
So, that set off the next phase.
With the help of Darek, I put on a 3" PA body lift, which I picked up off Cody (swamp) about a year ago, last Friday before the meet I held up here.
Then I dove into the rough install.
A 5" CST lift for the Z71. Holy shit was that some work. The hardest damn thing was taking all the stock shit apart. Spindles and hubs gave me the most problems. Then the rear sub-frame didn't have the holes drilled in the correct place so I had to fix that problem.
Well, it took me about a week of working on everything in order to finish it up with the spare time that I had. Felt really bad for the wife since the truck was where all my time went.
I finished that install up Friday and had to wait until Sunday since no shops could put on my new tires. So in my driveway it sat...
Until I made a call this morning to a couple guys at meineke that have ALWAYS helped me out in a bind.
They fixed my brake line which wasn't tight enough - apparently I wrench on the truck like a weak little girl because I couldn't get it tight enough.
Then I made another phone call and I was able to get someone to mount the tires and do an alignment. They told me they could balance them but the hood on their machine couldn't close with the new rubber and they never called me to let me know.
And if anyone has seen the Mud Grapplers, they have two sides to them, one has little reptile like pattern on then and the other side doesn't. They mounted the reptile pattern out and I didn't notice until I was already gone. Not too worried about it since it works and isn't that noticeable.
So now I have to make an appointment to have the wheels balanced on Monday.
So yeah, I need to do some better measuring, but I am about 46" in the front and 45" in the rear.
The setup is as follows:
3" PA Body lift
5" CST Z71 lift
1-2" torsion crank
2" shackle
18x9 Gear Alloy Flywheels with a +10mm offset
1.5" wheel spacers
35x12.50-18 Nitto Mud Grapplers
I am going to figure something out to level it out in the back, but it's not that noticable.
Also, I have been wanting to do this for 4 years now!!! It's good to see things happen that you have been waiting for.
